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Arthur's Teacher Trouble
Arthur's Teacher Trouble is the second Living Books PC CD-Rom Game from 1992 based on the 1986 Marc Brown book, and the CD Rom was released in 1992. Story Poor Arthur Read feels very upset when he learns that his new teacher (as now he's in 3rd grade) is a gay teacher named Mr. Ratburn. According to the school bulletin, he and the class are in Mr. Ratburn's class. Arthur has mentioned Ms. Sweetwater and Ms. Fink. But to his dismay, he also mentions Mr. Ratburn (also called "The Rat"). Mr. Ratburn, gives out a lot of homework on the first day of school. In fact, he always gives homework. As Mr. Haney puts out the 3rd grade list, Arthur looks at it. When he does, he finds out that he and his 3rd grade class are in Mr. Ratburn's class. The first day of school is over. Arthur notices that Mr. Ratburn sent out homework the first day. Prunella angrily tells Arthur, "I HAD THE RAT LAST YEAR! BOY, DO I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU!?". Binky Barnes warns Arthur that if he makes one wrong move, Mr. Ratburn sends him to death row each time he does so. Chris says that Mr. Ratburn is a vampire with magical powers. As everyone leaves, the principal (named Mr. Haney) announces a September spellathon at Arthur's school, and whoever spells the last word correctly will win a golden trophy. At home during the evening, Arthur makes a map of Africa for his homework. His sister, D.W., constantly teases him because she does not have homework—she hasn’t yet started kindergarten. The next day, Mr. Ratburn has a very important spelling test (a test and it has 100 or 1,000 spelling words) for his class the following morning, so the whole class must study hard (saying, "I want you to study very hard. The test has 100 or 1,000 words".). Then he continues that the two students who have the highest scores get to be in the all school spellathon. That week, everyone in Arthur's class studied harder than ever. They studied 100 or 1,000 words which would be on the spelling quiz. Francine did it while drinking plum soda, the Brain had time for sleeping, Muffy spelled her words on a computer, and Buster studied with his good luck charm. As for Arthur, he kept looking for quiet places to study. So he studied in his treehouse. On Friday, it is time for the quiz. Arthur gets distracted by two third grade teachers (Miss Sweetwater and Miss Fink). Ms. Sweetwater's class was making popcorn and Arthur could smell it. Ms. Fink's class was taking a field trip to the oceanarium. Then Arthur whispers to Francine why he had to get stuck with the rat. Before long, he announces that the Brain and Arthur received top scores (as they were the only two students who spelled every word correctly). Then he gives them a few extra words (100 or 1,000 more words) to study. Arthur and the Brain spelled all 1,000 words correctly. Since they did great on the test and now were the two highest scores to be in the spellathon, they're given a few new extra words (also with 100 or 1,000 words). He tells Arthur and the Brain to just study the extra 100 or 1,000 words and they should be ready for the spellathon in two weeks. Two weeks later, the spellathon begins, and Arthur still complains about Mr. Ratburn, wishing not going to be in school. The Brain has his first turn. Mr. Haney asks him to spell "fear" (for the first word of 100 or 1,000), but Brain doesn't respond for he is very nervous, he eventually attempts to spell the word, but he incorrectly spells it as "fere". Then Mr. Haney tells the Brain, "I am sorry. That's not correct". The Brain asks if Mr. Haney is sure and asks him if he's using the correct dictionary. The Brain is not the only one to drop out quickly. But most of the students misspell words and are eliminated from the competition (including the representatives from Miss. Sweetwater and Mrs. Fink's classes). The representatives from both of those classes become gone in a flash. Before long, Arthur and Prunella are left. The last word (100/100 or 1,000/1,000) on the spelling list is "preparation" from the principal (Mr. Haney). Prunella's turn comes and is made to spell "preparation" (which was the final word of the real spelling test). She is uncertain and asks him for the definition. Mr. Haney grants her wish and defines it. Prunella attempts to spell it, but spells it as "preperation". ''She is shocked to see that it was incorrect. Mr. Haney tells her, "I am sorry. That's incorrect. Now Arthur gets a chance to spell it". Arthur has a chance to spell the word "preparation". Mr. Haney tells Arthur that if he spells it correctly, he is the winner. Arthur stalls when he is about to spell that last word. He spells it and spells it as "preparation". He gets it right, wins the golden trophy, and feels very happy. Mr. Ratburn meanwhile comes to the microphone. He says he is very proud of Arthur. But not only that, he is also proud of his entire class. They have worked very hard. Finally, Mr. Ratburn announces that it is the last third grade he has for the spellathon. It's also the last year he teaches third grade. And then he says he looks forward to a new challenge; which is teaching kindergarten (saying, "But next year, I look forward with a new challenge...! TEACHING KINDERGARTEN!"). That means he's going to be a kindergarten teacher (for next year and onward). It then frightens (and shocks) D.W. She becomes shocked because she might get too much homework for her young age if she gets sorted into his class. That is, to which Mr. Ratburn tells D.W, "See you next year, D.W" (implying that D.W is going to be in kindergarten and gets Mr. Ratburn as the teacher). Characters *Narrator *Arthur Read *Mr. Ratburn *D.W. Read *The Brain *Jane Read (Mom) *David Read (Dad) *Throa Read (Grandma) *Francis Haney (Principal) *Buster Baxter *Prunella *Francine *Muffy *Binky Barnes *Chris *Sue Ellen *Fern Walters Minor Characters *Slime Pages *1. The first day of school is over, Mr. Ratburn lines up the students including Arthur. *2. Arthur complains to the students about Mr. Ratburn giving homework the first day. *3. The Principal comes out of his office with a trophy to show students and announces a Spellathon contest. *4. Arthur comes home in the kitchen and complains to his mom about having the strictest teacher. *5. Arthur is offered cookies but tells his mom he has homework to do. *6. Arthur is still doing homework in his bedroom on a map of Africa. *7. D.W. brags to Arthur about not having homework in kindergarten next year. *8. Mr. Ratburn announces to the class about a spelling test for the Spellathon competition. *9. The Students in Mr. Ratburns class studies harder than ever. *10. Arthur studies for his spelling test in his tree house. *11. It is Friday and Arthur complains about being stuck with the Rat but takes the spelling test. *12. Mr. Ratburn grades the student and announces the winners being The Brain and Arthur. *13. Mr. Ratburn gives The Brain and Arthur the papers to study for the Spellathon contest. *14. The Pages continue on. *15. The final page. *16. Arthur's family helps him out with his spelling. *17. Arthur's friends come over to his house but Arthur is busy studying for the Spellathon competition. *18. Arthur is nervous at the auditorium as he prepares to enter on stage for the contest. *19. Arthur and The Brain both gets ready to compete in the Spelling contest. *20. The Brian goes up and spells fear wrong as fere and is the first contestant to drop out. *21. Prunella goes up and spells preparation wrong as preperation and drops out and Arthur's the only one left. *22. Arthur spells preparation correctly in front of the audience and wins the Spellathon contest. *23. Arthur gets the trophy, Mr. Ratburn and his class friends celebrate on stage. *24. Mr. Ratburn announces to the audience that he will be teaching kindergarten much to D.W.s dismay. Quotes :'(Page 1)' :'Mr. Ratburn': We had fun today, didn't we? :'All': Yes, Mr. Ratburn. :'Arthur': Good afternoon, Mr. Ratburn. :'Francine': Yes, Mr. Ratburn. :'Brain': This is going to be a long year. :'(Page 2)' :'Arthur:' I can't believe he gave us homework the first day. :'Prunella:' I had the Rat last year! Boy do I feel sorry for you! :'Binky Barnes:' Make one wrong move and he puts you on death row :'Chris:' He's really a vampire with magical powers. :'(Page 18)' :'Arthur': Whew, Uh I don't think I'm ready for this. : Locations in Elwood City * 'Lakewood Elementary School' * 'Arthur's House' * 'Arthur's Tree House' Song * Cookies Song * USA National Anthem * Yankee Doodle Trivia *Some of the non-cartoon sound effects have also been recycled, such as Arthur's gulp. *This is the first Living Books game for several things: **The first Living Books game to feature a running gag. ***The paper airplane, which was the running gag in this game, also re-appeared in [[Little Monster at School|''Little Monster at School]] and ''Harry and the Haunted House'' (2 pages). **The first Living Books game to feature the Paint and Programmer animations in the credits. *** These two and the Music one were the only three credits animations that appeared in many Living Books games so far, hence the sequence as seen in (PC/Mac ports of) Little Monster at School is the most commonly used credits sequence for several games in the series. **This is the first Living Book to include demos of other Living Books games on the disc for its original v1.0 release. *Sometimes when clicking on the window on the page where D.W. says that she will be taking Arthur's place, it will play a rendition of the Blue Danube. *The color of stripes with white on Arthur's clothes are red instead of black while he's in jail. *The game marks the first time Arthur characters were animated and voiced prior to the cartoon that would come four years later. **Some characters also looked different from their usual designs (i.e. their cartoon counterparts, which is who we commonly see them as; D.W. oddly had blond hair instead of brown, which is her usual hair color), probably due to the producers of Living Books misinterpreting the characters' physical appearances from the book. *Mark Schlichting wanted to make a Noddy book instead of this, but he loved the book so much that he'd decided to make this. * You leave the book when Arthur says, "OK, goodbye." (if "Yes" is chosen), the same games as ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' and ''Ruff's Bone''. However, you might want to keep playing when he says "Okay. Let's continue playing." (if "No" is chosen). *There was a preview of this game in the very first edition/demo of ''Just Grandma and Me''.' *The very first edition/demo of this Living Book (the one that has Broderbund's at the top right corner of the logo) has a preview for The Tortoise and the Hare. **Strangely enough, it said on the top left corner of the preview: Aesop's Fables: Book One meaning that it was planned that there would be more of Aesop's fables as Living Books. Apparently, '"'''The Tortoise and the Hare"' was the only one that was made of the fables. * This story has the largest number of pages (24). * The demo version of V1.0 bizarrely included the preview and credits. The V1.1 demo removed this. * This is the only Living Book in the entire series to have never gotten an engine upgrade in any re-releases, as the full game slower fading screens, and sounds would get cutoff if they ran longer than the animation. The v1.0 demo also had this issue. ** ScummVM allows the sounds to play through without being cut off, therefore getting them overlapped with other sound effects barging in. ** As the V1.1 PC demo got an engine upgrade to enable faster fading between screens, the running man cursor, and waiting for sounds to finish before continuing animation, the full program for this game oddly never got one (despite the previous title Just Grandma and Me getting an engine upgrade for V2). This is possibly due to budget constraints, or Living Books has never bothered to give it an engine upgrade. *** The Macintosh platform has faster fading and the running man cursor like all the other games, but still has sounds being cutoff if they ran longer than the animation. ** For the PC version of the full game, it's possible you could take the game data files + outline file from the V1.0 version of the full game and inject them into the V1.1 demo (though in the files, you would have to switch filenames with the '''Options' and Quit IBM files) to try to give the full game an engine upgrade, but still you cannot make it to where the game will wait for sounds to finish before continuing animation. * V1.0 predates the hybrid format, so the Macintosh and Windows versions were shipped on separate discs. V1.1 put them on the same disc. * At the time of this release in 1993 Mr. Ratburns sexual identity in the PC game was unknown, then on 13 May 2019 in the TV show Arthur, Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone. Mr. Ratburn comes out of the closet as a homosexual and marries a man in a same sex wedding. This episode was banned by Alabama Television. Goofs TBA Releases *1992: Original release. A challenge to find. *1994: Random House release. This one's exceptionally easy to find. *1998: Broderbund Software re-release. The easiest one to find. ** Basically identical to the 1994 Random House version, except that the 1994 Living Books intro with the Random House tagline has been replaced with the original 1992 intro with the Broderbund tagline. *1999: PC Guide release. Released in the UK, oddly using the US dub. It appeared in the magazine of the same name, but because of the fact that this release is so scarce, it has not been available in any auction sites like eBay nor Amazon. **Uses the 1994 Random House version from the 1998 Broderbund Software re-release. Includes demos for Math Workshop and Carmen Sandiego Word Detective, as well as the UK version of The Tortoise and the Hare; also includes the three demos of Just Grandma and Me, The Tortoise and the Hare, and The New Kid on the Block from the 1994 CD-ROM. Photos Quit * "Are you sure you want to quit? * no "Okay. * ''yes '' "Okay. Goodbye." Category:Living Books Games Category:Books Category:TV series based on Living Books Games Category:Books based on Living Books Games Category:Marc Brown